ceiling impasse. he calls it a short-term debt limit extension. you may know it better as kicking the can down the road. which reminds me, there was someone just a few months ago who was famously against that kind of a deal. who was it? >> kick the can. kick the can. kick the can. >> right, of course. that's who it was. joining us is jonathan alter and jared bernstein. welcome to you both. john, we've seen speaker boehner's power getting weaker and weaker. is paul ryan now the de facto head of the gop? >> well, you know, actually, martin, i think he has been much more influential than people realize -- >> because he's been quite quiet publicly. >> going back to 2011. he has so much respect within that republican caucus. he's the guy who killed simpson/bowl simpson/bowles. he was on the simpson/bowles commission and wasn't willing to have any revenue increases. his fingerprints were not on it. and then when it came to the grand bargain, he told john boehner wait until the election. don't do this deal. so this is more of the same from him in his own relatively quiet way because he is much m
